People & Inspiration

In Focus: Getting To Know Award-Winning Comics Creator Manix Abrera

I met Manix in the U.P. College of Fine Arts where he was my batchmate a long time ago in the early 2000s era. Since then he has become an acclaimed and awarded comic book illustrator-slash-graphic novel writer known for his continuing belly-laugh-inducing, mostly social-commentating comic strip creation, Kiko Machine Komix. He has also evolved by doing wordless comics on the side communicating purely through illustration. In our batch we always knew Manix as the son of famous editorial cartoonist, Jess Abrera (yung anak na medyo may permanent smile kahit ngarag na LOL) but early on it was already spotted that he sort of had his own world in orbit and something special going for him. I can't ever forget the work he did for our thesis deliberations, I remember the exhibit, the art, and characters that lifted off paper when you looked at them. In this exclusive, Manix gets chatty about his art, his process, and more:

5. What's your favorite time of day to create and draw... and how much time out of a day to you carve out for it? How many hours straight can you draw? "Ang favorite time of day ko para mag-drawing ay gabi. Paminsan masaya rin mag-drawing sa hapon, pero gabi talaga ang favorite ko, minsan umaabot ng madaling araw. Madami akong naiisip sa gabi lalo na kung umuulan pa haha."